Disco showtunes! What more could a gayboy want?

The creatively titled "The Ethel Merman Disco Album", is a masterwork of high camp. I have to imagine that people laughed at this concept even when it was released back in the heyday of disco. I mean....look at the cover. Is someone taking off their hat in salute to her, or panhandling her? And why is she dressed like Endora?

Don't get me wrong, Ethel Merman is one of the great Broadway actresses of the Twentieth Century. However, the possesion of a Tony Award (Best Actress, Musical, 1951) does not imply that one can do disco.

In Miss Merman's defense, from listening to this album, it's not clear if she was even involved in the recording of it. One could easily imagine that some enterprising producer simply took some recordings of Ethel singing her showtune standards and put a disco accompaniment track behind it. There's No Business Like Show Business and I've Got Rhythm are not now, nor have they ever been, disco songs. Though it is pretty clear that she would have had to pose for that album cover, so she doesn't get off completely scott-free.

As a collection of dance music, I find this album a refreshing departure from current dance tracks. It's nice to hear something with a beat a little more complicated than THUMP THUMP THUMP and lyrics that include more than a dozen different words. Ethel Merman is cleary a far classier, not to mention more talented artist than today's whore-like club music artists. You used to be all cute and innocent, Kylie Minogue, now look at yourself. This is a creative, if ill-conceived, attempt at contemporary art (contemporary relative to when it was recorded, of course).

Kudos to Ethel Merman for trying something new so late in life. Depending on who you ask, she was 71 or 72 the year this was released. How many of us can hope to be able to speak clearly at that age, let alone belt out I Get a Kick Out of You to a disco beat? Her age is a little unnerving to think about while listening to her sing Something For the Boys. You always do something for the boys, eh Ethel? At age 71, lets hope it's just baking cookies. GAH.... I'm having Cocoon flashbacks!

When I say she belts out these songs, I mean it. Even in the twilight of her life, her voice retained it's steam-roller power. Being used to the relatively weak voices of modern dance-music acts, it's shocking to hear a disco beat and then get smashed in the face with Ethel Merman's powerhouse voice.

This might have been a better album if she were singing disco anthems intead of disco-fied showtunes, but I doubt it would have been as much fun or as campy.

As with the Fabio album a few tracks have been ripped and posted on the web. So you can enjoy what I think are the two best tracks on the album for yourself. Thanks to my chemist friend Matt for pointing me towards this album and providing a copy of it.

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